The gold price is set for its third year of annual losses and is expected to end the year around 10 per cent down on 2014’s prices.

However, post-Christmas trade in the precious metal has been steady as gold prices responded well to better oil prices. The volume of trading, though, has been thin as many dealers remain on an extended Christmas break.

The gold spot price per troy ounce plunged to £709.85 at 08:30 on Tuesday (29 December) but had climbed back up to £722.35 by 17:00. The price per troy ounce was 721.28at 09:15 today (Wednesday 30 December).

Prior to the festive break, the gold price had increased by almost one per cent in Christmas week but is set to show its sixth quarterly fall in value. This is the longest quarterly run of losses since the 1970s, which, while it could be problematic for short-term investors, signifies a good time for investors seeking to snap up higher volumes of the precious metal and play the long game.

Much of the decrease in the value of gold this year can be attributed to the strength of the US dollar and the expectations that the US Federal Reserve would increase interest rates on the back of America’s strengthening economy. Although gold prices did dip when the Fed increased the cost of borrowing earlier this month, they recovered quickly after it intimated that future rate rises in 2016 would probably be slow and steady.

ING analyst Hamza Khan told NDTV Profit: “If you look at the last year's decline, that was due almost exclusively to a much stronger dollar, and that was due to the Fed being the only central body to raise rates with any conviction.

“The question of whether gold is going to recover in 2016 or not will depend not on whether the Fed hikes rates or not, because that seems to be a given, but whether it is the only one to hike rates.